The Internet contains an enormous amount of information. Several methods have been developed for searching the Internet for a particular piece of information. These include:
(a) Yellow pages. Each web site is hierarchically categorized by a subject matter and a user can browse sites by subject matter and/or perform a keyword search limited to a subject matter.
(b) White pages. The owners of web sites are listed in a geographical and/or alphabetical ordering. A user can browse web sites by owner name.
(c) Search engines. A user can perform a keyword search based on the content of WWW pages.
(d) Intelligent agents. A user defines a search criterion to an automated agent, which agent then searches for the information using search engines and/or web-crawling and/or alerts the user when new information comes to light.
(e) Indexes. Various services maintain indexes of interesting information and locations where such information may be found. In a WWW site of a particular company it is possible to determine a nearest outlet.
(f) Registry searches. A few new index services provide the possibility for a company or an individual to register an association between a slogan, trademark, product, subject and/or acronym and a WWW address and/or other company information. When a user enters such a keyword, the relevant information and/or addresses may be presented.
The Internet, in general, is an anonymous network and a particular search engine has no direct way of identifying a particular user. A mechanism called “cookies” is used by some WWW servers to store, at a user's computer, personalized information that is useful for accessing that site. Such information typically includes a preferred page layout and usage information, such as when the page was last accessed. In addition, such information may be used for targeting advertisements and/or for storing user preferences and/or previously entered data.
PCT publication 97/41673, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method of generating a psychographic profile of Internet users. It is suggested that the resulting profile be used, inter alia, for targeting of advertisements.